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James “Pakis” Papazoglakis, was born April 7, 1923, in New York City, NY. He was the son of Andonios Hatzidimitris Papazoglakis and Andronique Papazoglakis, who immigrated to the United States from Alatsata, in the Smyrna area of Asia Minor. He arrived in Ellis Island, New York on November 16, 1907. The couple also had a daughter named Catherine. James was raised as a normal NY kid for the time. He had a bike and a paper route. He played stickball in the streets and tried going to as many Dodger games as possible. Jim finished high school as WW2 was starting. Because he was too young, his enlistment papers required his parents’ signature. After his father refused to sign for a position in the corps of engineers (because building bridges was dangerous) Jim got him to agree to the Navy, where he served in the "less" perilous position of a tail gunner on a TBF Grummond Avenger Torpedo Bomber. It must be noted that he enlisted against his father's objections because as he said to his son, "they took one country away from us and not another." With WW2 in full scale during 1942, James decided to enlist in the US Navy on December 15, 1942, in the Navy Receiving Station (NRS) New York and he entered active duty on January 31, 1943, in the United States Naval Training School in Sampson New York. Two months later he transferred to Naval Training School at Memphis Tennessee for the course of instruction in Aviation Machinist Mates School at Naval Air Training Center. He began the courses on May 24, 1943, and  21 weeks later, on October 16, 1943, he graduated and was promoted to Aviation Machinist’s Mate 3/c V6 USNR on November 1, 1943. For the next two months, he satisfactory completed a ground course in Naval Aerial Gunnery and was designated Naval Aerial Gunner. On December 27, 1943, he transferred to VTB-2 in NAS Miami Florida. On 10 April 1944, he qualified combat aircrewman after satisfactorily completing 8 weeks of practical instruction in VTB aircraft (TBF & TBM), and two days later he transferred for duty to NAS Norfolk, Virginia. He reported for duty in Torpedo Squadron 83 on June 18, 1944, in Carrier Air Service Unit 22, (CASU-22) at Quonset Point where he arrived on June 7, 1944. The Squadron was newly established,  just a month before May 1, 1944.

The Greek American gunner began his operational training along with his new squadron. During November VT-83 re-equipped with the more advanced TBM-3 Avengers and began preparations for the upcoming deployment and combat in the Pacific. The final training took place in the Hawaiian islands and on February 21, 1945, the squadron embarked on the USS Nassau CVE-16 for Guam arriving on March 4. Three days later embarked once more in the USS Long Island CVE-1 for Ulithi where they arrived on March 9. The next day VT-83 finally embarked on their "home" the USS Essex CV-9 for carrier combat duty. On March 14 Essex and her Air Group CVG-83 sailed for Okinawa to support the operation against the Japanese forces. No one in Essex could contemplate what would happen in the ensuing weeks. But ultimately, it would be, by almost any measure, the longest, most intense, and most arduous combat cruise of World War Two by any carrier and air group. No other fleet carrier would match the combat record compiled by Essex and Air Group 83 during this cruise. All the pilots and crews were anxiously waiting to engage the enemy. Papazoglakis wasn’t the only Greek American on board the Essex. In VT-83's sister Squadron, VB-83, Thomas Samaras (https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/pilots-crews/bomber-pilots-copilots/thomas-samaras/) also waited to strike his targets with his Helldiver while James Sakellariades (https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/pilots-crews/fighter-pilots/james-sakellariades/) of VBF-83 was ready to protect the fleet from Kamikaze and support the ground troops with his F4U Corsair. Sailing beside their carrier, one more proud  Greek American, the Captain of USS Wallace L. Lind, George DeMetropolis (https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/research-guides/modern-biographical-files-ndl/modern-bios-d/demetropolis-george.html) protected them from enemy submarines and enemy bombers.

CHEATING DEATH

James was the turret gunner on a TBF Grumman Avenger flying off the USS Essex, as a part of Air Group CVG-83. Their mission was to attack Japanese fleet units at Kure Naval Base one of four principal naval shipyards operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, located on the island of Honshu. According to what he said to his son Rev. Thomas Papazoglakis they did not have a radioman and left anything “non-essential” off the plane that day as they needed all the fuel the plane could carry for this mission. They were told they would be flying a long distance with enough fuel to make it to the target and back to the ship with the lighter aircraft. When they approached the target everything seemed to happen very quickly. They flew through very heavy flak to the point that there was a period when he could not see the target, as they broke through to see the target, he was firing the machine gun in his turret while concentrating on the release of his torpedo. According to the VT-83 history, the anti-aircraft fire was the heaviest ever against navy airplanes. During the attack, flak hit the tail section of the plane. The crew immediately release its ordnance and headed back for the carrier, hoping to close as much as possible near the fleet in case they had to make a forced landing at the sea. Out of nowhere a Japanese fighter dived from the clouds and went for the kill. However, their luck hadn’t run out yet. A fighter pilot from the USS Bunker Hill saw the threat and closed fast on the enemy fighter.

Flying in a Vought F4U Corsair, USMC pilot, 1st Lt. Philip. S (Pots) Wilmot and his squadron VMF-451 Blue Devils were tasked also to attack Kure Naval Base, Pots said he had no idea that it would be bad, but when they arrived over Honshu the sky was filled with flak.

"One went off right next to my wing, I closed my eyes thinking I was dead, but all it did was knock me around." 

After dive bombing and hitting a carrier with three rockets, Pots was separated from his commander as he pulled up from his dive. In the chaos of the attack, Pots was able to locate fellow pilot 1st Lt. W.E. Brown and slid up into formation with him for the return to their carrier. As they flew under the clouds on their way back to the USS Bunker Hill, Wilmot and Brown spotted a damaged Grumman Avenger TBM-3. The aircraft came out of the clouds smoking and losing altitude. Knowing the plane was not going to make it back to its carrier and that the crew was sitting ducks, the two pilots began to escort the TBM-3 on its descent. The TBM-3 was crewed by Navy Pilot Lt. Ray Plant and Greek American Gunner James Papazoglakis, Aviation Mechanist Mate 3rd Class. Pots remembered:

"Sure enough, a damn Frank, a code name from Imperial Japanese Navy fighter plane, came right out of the clouds trying to finish off the Avenger. Luckily, Lt. Brown was able to fire on the Japanese plane and bring it down before it made contact with the Navy plane."

According to Rev. Thomas Papazoglakis:

"In the stories, my dad always told, he never saw the Japanese plane, he was too busy watching the tail fall off the TBM-3."

The Avenger continued to lose altitude, looking for a place to ditch the aircraft. Off the coast of Honshu in the Pacific Ocean, the pilots stumbled upon the USS Bowfin, an American rescue submarine. Pots watched as Lt. Plant maneuvered his damaged plane. Pots said:

"They plopped into the water, scrabbled out of their plane and onto the deck of the submarine. I couldn't understand how we saved them. We never saved people, we just had to watch them go down, sometimes you cried. It was terrible out there. I was so happy they survived."

During a meeting between Tom Papazoglakis and Pots held in 2018, Tom thanked Pots for saving his father's life. Although he was not alive that day in 1945, he knew that without the help of the two USMC pilots his dad would never have made it back from the war, never married his mother and therefore he, his three sisters nor any of their children would have been born.

"Thank you for doing it,"  the Rev. Papazoglakis said to Pots, acknowledging that moment long ago when his dad's life was saved. "I think that’s why I was put here, to save Rev. Tom’s dad; that’s my ultimate achievement," Pots said.